Pedal vehicles are collector's latest hobby

Walking into Jim Niswonger's garage is like going on a trip back in time. It houses a variety of items: vintage pressed-steel trucks, Grisold cast-iron skillets of all sizes, pedal airplanes, cars, boats and tractors, plus fishing rods and bobble corks.

Niswonger, a retired Cape Girardeau firefighter, started off collecting cast-iron pans, which he used for cooking, about 15 to 20 years ago. He moved on to toy trucks 10 or 12 years ago and pedal cars and tractors five years ago.

A couple of pedal airplanes hang from his garage ceiling, along with a light blue Thunderbird pedal car and a shiny red wagon and race car of the same shade. The skillets are in one corner. Shelves are lined with semi-trucks, some dating to the 1930s, tractors and pickups, plus boxes of reels, toy parts and other miscellaneous items.

A McCormick Farmall 450 pedal tractor made by Eska is displayed under a Murray Tee Bird pedal car in Jim Niswonger’s workshop Friday in Cape Girardeau. Both are from the late 1950s to early 1960s. (Fred Lynch)

Fishing rods also hang from the ceiling. The floors and tables feature works in progress such as a police tricycle.

A shiny red 450 McCormick Farmall tractor sits on one of the tables and a rare Super Sonda, a scooter made by Garton Co. about the same time as Honda came out with its mini bikes, lays on a table ready to be restored, Niswonger said. He keeps additional items in a storage building.

After refurbishing his first pedal airplane, the hobby grew on him. Initially, he was into smaller pressed-shell trucks and older smaller trucks that children used to play with. Then he got into pedal vehicles.

"I found a little car at an auction sale and I found a man who sells reproduced decals, so I can restore these cars and make them look like they came from the factories back in the '50s," Niswonger said.

After 26 years with the fire department, Niswonger retired 17 years ago.

"So I've had the time to get out and scour the country and go to all kinds of auction sales, any kind of sale -- garage sale or estate sale," he said.

When he gets the items to his garage, the 69-year-old is never in a hurry to finish.

Jim Niswonger shows an early 1940s-era Steelcraft Pursuit pedal plane that resembles an RAF Spitfire on Friday at his home in Cape Girardeau. The propeller spins as the wheels turn. (Fred Lynch)

"I start taking them apart, then I make notes about what I need to order for them. If they need a new chain or bearing, then I order parts for them, then start sanding on them and getting them ready to paint," Niswonger said.

He waits until it's a nice day to spray paint. If it's a rare find, he may have a body shop in town do it.

Niswonger's affinity for tinkering began back in the late 1960s when he was with the fire department. Niswonger and his colleagues would repair toys and bicycles and give them to needy youngsters during the Christmas holidays.

"A bunch of guys there really had some talent," Niswonger said. There were six to eight guys on a crew, so if someone didn't know how to do something, one of the other guys did.

Niswonger said he can fiddle with almost anything, but it doesn't necessarily mean he can fix it.

"There's things I like to work on and things I refuse to work on. I do enjoy working on these little pedal cars. I do work on some bicycles. I've got some wagons and some tricycles," he said. "I always try to take a picture of them before and after so I can kind of remember how they looked when I got them and can ... refer back to them. I got a couple of books that show how they looked when they came from the factory."

"I try to make them look original and try to put all the original parts back on them," Niswonger added.

Niswonger, a native of Oriole, and his wife, Irmgard, have two children and two grandchildren. He met Irmgard while he served in the U.S. Army in Germany. He also was in Vietnam for almost a year.

Their grandchildren, 4-year-old twins Cooper and Ryder, love the pedal vehicles.

"I can't keep them off them," Niswonger said. "When they come to visit, they're on one or the other all the time. They don't know which one they want to ride, I've got so many. But they always want to take them out in the driveway and drive one or the other and swap."

"They're also into Hot Wheels, and I've got a million of them, so I keep my grandsons pretty well in toys to play with," he added.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639